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2023-09-18 Israel-Palestine-Jordan
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Israel denies report Saudis suspending normalization talks over Palestinian issue
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Negotiating in public with all the drama of the souk. But in private they’ve been working together for over twenty years, so it doesn’t matter nearly as much as is claimed — and it lets the Biden administration feel like they’re important. [IsraelTimes] Saudi-owned site says hardline Netanyahu government’s refusal to make concessions to Paleostinians at heart of decision to pull away; Israeli, US officials say it’s untrue.
A Saudi-owned newspaper reported Sunday that the nation has told the Biden administration it is freezing US-brokered efforts to normalize relations with Israel because Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s hardline government is unwilling to make any concessions to the Paleostinians. An Israeli and an American official both said the report was false. According to the report in the Elaph newspaper, supposedly citing officials in Netanyahu’s office, the US has informed Israel of the Saudi stance.
Ah. A game of telephone involving anonymous sources — what odds everyone properly heard what was being said, there were no cultural/language miscommunications, and absolutely no one in the chain (including the Saudi news site staff and especially the Biden administration functionairies) had ulterior motives coloring what was said or heard? It said that Israel was "confused" by the move, believing that the Saudis were prepared to move ahead with normalizing ties without linking it to the progress on the Paleostinian issue.
Continued from Page 2
The report by the London-based paper’s Israel correspondent singled out the insistence by far-right ministers Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben Gvir
...neither of whom is the prime minister... that Israel not make any concessions to the Paleostinians, adding that without progress with Ramallah, there could be no progress with Riyadh.
Last month, Netanyahu indicated that he was open to gestures to Paleostinians if a normalization deal with Soddy Arabia
...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face...
depended on it, and hinted that he would not let coalition members block an agreement.
"Do I think it’s feasible to have that, and do I think that political questions will block it? I doubt it," Netanyahu told Bloomberg News. "If there’s political will, there will be a political way to achieve normalization and a formal peace between Israel and Saudi Arabia.
There it is. “I think there’s enough room to discuss possibilities," he added.
Netanyahu’s comments were in line with what Foreign Minister Eli Cohen said the day before in an interview with Elaph, which is often seen as a conduit for public messaging between Jerusalem and Riyadh.
"The Paleostinian issue will not be an obstacle to peace," Cohen said.
"We also proved this in the Abraham Accords. We all have an interest in improving life in the areas of the Paleostinian Authority."
But Netanyahu’s far-right coalition partners have ruled out any compromise with the Paleostinians.
"We will not make any concessions to the Paleostinians. It’s a fiction," Smotrich, who heads the far-right Religious Zionism party, told Army Radio last month.
Smotrich said that while Israel is interested in the US-brokered deal with Riyadh, "it has nothing to do with Judea and Samaria," referring to the West Bank by its biblical names.
However,
facts are stubborn; statistics are more pliable...
in recent weeks the Saudis have stepped up their engagement with Paleostinians.
Soddy Arabia will be co-hosting an event on the sidelines of the United Nations
...a formerly good idea gone bad...
General Assembly this week focused on revamping the Israeli-Paleostinian grinding of the peace processor, three UN diplomats told The Times of Israel on Thursday.
The event, titled "Peace Day Effort for Middle East Peace," will take place on Monday and is being put on by Saudi Arabia along with the Arab League
...an organization of Arabic-speaking states with 22 member countries and four observers. The League tries to achieve Arab consensus on issues, which usually leaves them doing nothing but a bit of grimacing and mustache cursing...
and the European Union
...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing...
in cooperation with Egypt and Jordan, one of the diplomats said. UN Secretary-General António Guterres
 ...Portuguese politician and diplomat, ninth Secretary-General of the United Nations. Previously, he was the UN High Commissioner for Refugees between 2005 and 2015. He was the Prime Minister of Portugal from 1995 to 2002 and was the Secretary-General of the Socialist Party from 1992 to 2002. He served as President of the Socialist International from 1999 to 2005. In both a 2012 and 2014 poll, the Portuguese public ranked him as the best Prime Minister of the previous 30 years...
will be the keynote speaker.
Neither the Israeli nor the Paleostinian missions were invited to the event, the UN diplomat said, explaining that it is focused on congregating important global stakeholders on the issue in order to "reinvigorate" the grinding of the peace processor.
The current Israeli government led by Netanyahu has refused to entertain the notion of peace talks with the Paleostinian Authority, instead moving to radically expand Israel’s footprint in the West Bank. The PA supports a two-state solution, but its leadership is marred by charges of corruption and President the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas
...aka Abu Mazen, a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial. While no Yasser Arafat, he has his own brand of evil, just a little more lowercase....
was roundly criticized last week for a speech employing a range of antisemitic tropes.
Both Netanyahu and Abbas will be at the UN this week.
Two weeks ago, Riyadh hosted a Paleostinian Authority delegation to discuss how to leverage a normalization deal to advance the Paleostinian cause.
Saudi leaders assured the visiting delegation that Riyadh "will not abandon" the Paleostinian cause, even as it discusses normalizing ties with Israel, a US and an Arab official told The Times of Israel last week.
The message was passed along in multiple meetings between the Paleostinian Authority delegation and senior Saudi officials, including Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan, the US and the Arab official said.
Last month, Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to Jordan began serving as Riyadh’s first-ever nonresident ambassador to the Paleostinians as well as its first-ever nonresident consul general to Jerusalem.
The Arab official explained that Riyadh has made clear to Ramallah that it is prepared to depart from its long-held public stance against normalizing ties with Israel absent an actualized two-state solution to the Israeli-Paleostinian conflict, and that the PA has come to terms with this development and accordingly is asking for measures that fall short of immediate statehood. 
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Posted by trailing wife 2023-09-18 00:00||
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